search
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From Middle English serchen, from Anglo-Norman sercher, Old French cerchier, from Latin circare.
Pronunciation [edit]
Verb [edit]
search (third-person singular simple present searches, present participle searching, simple past and past participle searched)
- (transitive) To look in (a place) for something.
- I searched the garden for the keys and found them in the vegetable patch.
- (intransitive, followed by "for") To look thoroughly.
- The police are searching for evidence in his flat.
- John Locke
- It sufficeth that they have once with care sifted the matter, and searched into all the particulars.
- (transitive, now rare) To look for, seek.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.vi:
- To search the God of loue, her Nymphes she sent / Throughout the wandring forrest euery where [...].
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.vi:
- (transitive, obsolete) To probe or examine (a wound).
- 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book I:
- ther they refresshed hem as wel as they myght, and made leches serche theyr woundys and sorowed gretely for the dethe of her peple [...].
- 1588, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, II.3:
- Now to the bottome dost thou search my wound.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.4:
- Thus when they all had sorowed their fill, / They softly gan to search his griesly wownd [...].
- 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.35:
- His wife perceiving him to droope and languish away, entreated him she might leasurely search and neerely view the quality of his disease [...].
- 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book I:
Synonyms [edit]
- (transitive: look throughout (a place) for something): comb, scour
- (intransitive: look thoroughly): look for, seek, comb, scour
Derived terms [edit]
terms derived from search (verb)
Translations [edit]
to look throughout (a place) for something
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(followed by "for") to look thoroughly
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Noun [edit]
search (plural searches)
- An attempt to find something.
- With only five minutes until we were meant to leave, the search for the keys started in earnest.
- 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[1]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):
- At least eight people died, and officials expressed deep concerns that the toll would rise as more searches of homes were carried out.
- The act of searching in general.
- Search is a hard problem for computers to solve efficiently
Translations [edit]
Translations
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